[Librarian's Room. North wall lunette with Pegasus. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.]

Founding fathers wanted the United States to be a complete break from the past and English influences. Jefferson saw architecture as an artistic declaration that the United States was unique and not European. The inspirations for his architectural views were the classic civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome. The “Age of Reason” architects were drawn to the symmetry, clean lines and mathematical preciseness of Greek and Roman buildings. Jefferson probably had the largest architectural library in the United States.

In 2015, documentary photographer Carol Highsmith received a letter from Getty Images accusing her of copyright infringement for featuring one of her own photographs on her own website. It demanded payment of $120. This was how Highsmith came to learn that stock photo agencies Getty and Alamy had been sending similar threat letters and charging fees to users of her images, which she had donated to the Library of Congress for use by the general public at no charge. In 2016, Highsmith has filed a $1 billion copyright infringement suit against both Alamy and Getty stating “gross misuse” of 18,755 of her photographs. “The defendants [Getty Images] have apparently misappropriated Ms. Highsmith’s generous gift to the American people,” the complaint reads. “[They] are not only unlawfully charging licensing fees … but are falsely and fraudulently holding themselves out as the exclusive copyright owner.” According to the lawsuit, Getty and Alamy, on their websites, have been selling licenses for thousands of Highsmith’s photographs, many without her name attached to them and stamped with “false watermarks.” (more: http://hyperallergic.com/314079/photographer-files-1-billion-suit-against-getty-for-licensing-her-public-domain-images/)

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